Balor
|history= In the early days of history, a child was born among the Fomorian people--a child that would become known as "Balor." The son of the tribe's shaman, Balor learned the lore of his father and seemed set to follow his footsteps...until one day, while his father worked on a great and terrible curse with his magic, Balor looked upon the ceremony out of curiosity. Unprotected from the dark powers his father called upon, Balor was open to them...and the evil spirits streamed into his body, taking up residence in one of his eyes. From that day forward, he was Balor of the Evil Eye, a cursed being that was no longer welcome among his people, whose eye brought weakness and even death to those around him. He was insulted, spat upon, beaten, and hated. The only thing that saved him was the fear that people had of his father, the shaman...and it was clear that would only last so long. Balor knew he could not hope to live for long...so, when still a young boy, he decided that if he would not be accepted, he would be feared. He allowed the power of the spirits into him fully, accepting them, and began to use it willingly. With the power the evil inside him granted him, Balor became feared not for what he might accidentally do, but for what he intended to do. Those who insulted him died. Those who struck him died. Those who spat on him died. Those who hated him...well, most everyone hated him, but they cowered in fear. Before he was considered a man, Balor was the effective leader of his tribe, an unstoppable force whether he used his horrible gaze or battled by more traditional means--for he recognized that fighting with only one method was a recipe for disaster. He eventually grew tired of the old chief trying to maintain his power, and at an age when most would consider him still just a boy, he slew the old chief in personal combat and formally took control of the tribe. What followed was a whirlwind life of battle and raids, as Balor progressed from a tribal chief to a true warlord. He went from being feared by his own people to being feared by all in the Celtic lands. He took what he wanted, and eliminated any threats to his power, by any means necessary...any means at all. When he heard of a fate...that he would be destroyed by his grandson, he took action against it...first by imprisoning his daughter, and then, when that did not work, by having his grandsons slain. He was utterly unstoppable, and had grown in power such that armies would fall before him. When Bres, the ousted king of the Tuatha de Danaan, appeared before him to ask his help regaining the crown...he agreed, of course. Bres was nothing to him...just the excuse for going to war. When the Tuatha were beaten, he would stamp out those loyal to Bres as well, and then slay Bres and take the throne himself...another land and more riches for the one who could never have enough of them. But it didn't go as planned. A danger he thought he had destroyed--his grandson, Lugh of the Long Hand--surfaced in the battle, and the great Balor was slain, unable to escape a fate he thought he had avoided. His own army fell victim to the power of his Evil Eye, and he passed into myth. Thousands of years passed, and Balor's spirit was bound in a place he knew nothing about. Every day, he sat in silence and darkness, bound in chains. It was a dreary existence, a horrible existence. He would rather it had ended entirely, but...it never did. A lesser man would have gone mad. Balor...thought. He had a lot of time to think. He thought about how he had gotten to this place...how he had been laid low by the one he thought he had dealt with...how he had been hated by everyone. On some level, he began to realize that something had gone wrong. He remembered his earliest days...the days when people had spoken to him not in hate, or fear, but...as a person. He wondered for a long time why the rest of his life hadn't been that way. One day, he got his answer. His spirit was summoned before a man and a woman--Lords of Order, they called themselves. All around stared at the mighty Balor, the feared warlord of legend. The questions the man and woman asked, though, surprised him. "Were you satisfied with your life?" the man asked. "I wasn't," Balor said, taken aback such that he forgot his defiance and answered honestly. "I had power...I was great...but I remember having something else." "Do you know why you lost what you had?" the woman asked. "I don't," Balor said. "They began to hate you, so you hated them back," the woman said. "You cared for no one but yourself...and everyone knew it." "When a tyrant rules, a hero will rise," the man said. "That is the way of myths and legends, and you are as bound by those rules as any other." "I am no myth," Balor said. "That is all you are, now," the woman said. "But you could be more, again." They explained it to him, then...how long, how very long had passed, and how he and all his people had faded into lore. They explained why he had been summoned...that the people of the world needed something, needed help that /he/ was suited to give. It was a threat born from him, they explained...upon his death, the spirits that made up his eye had been released, and over the years they had caused troubles within the world. Now...now they had begun to gather again, and it was growing worse. The conquerer, the warlord...they wanted him to become a savior and give of himself for others. They hoped it would save him, as well. Anything was better than this bleak eternity. Balor agreed. He didn't remember anything after that. The next time he opened his eyes, he found himself lying in a dark room. A moment of panic was broken as he noticed more...a circle of stones, and an older man standing before him, with eyes a mix of worry and...sympathy? Days passed before Balor could properly move again...days in which he was cared for by the man, and taught to control a body again. A much smaller body...for Balor noted to his displeasure that certain parts of his arrangement with the man and woman had been...hidden. Gradually, the older man--Aiden--explained things to him--the binding, the Order--or what was left of it--he now served, the mission that lay before him...and then, when he was ready, Aiden brought him to the circle of stones once more. One more ceremony...he had been returned to the world as a human, but he wouldn't be able to serve that way. No...he had to be a myth once more. Balor of the Evil Eye, in truth. Aiden had gathered many of the evil spirits...and with those, he were able to bind Balor to his myth once more. He thought, for a moment, to attack Aiden...to use his restored power and take what he wanted once more. But...that was how he got to his end last time. If he decided to kill Aiden one day, it'd be easy to do that whenever he wanted. Instead...maybe he'd give it a shot and try to work with this man. He submitted, and agreed to serve the cause. It became...easier, then. Gradually, Aiden taught him what he needed to know, and when it was time for him to go out into the world, he had a guide and...not a friend, but someone he could trust. Together with Aiden, Balor went out into the world to reclaim the evil spirits that had wandered from him, and save the mortals he would have once sought to rule. }} Category:Character Category:GFC Category:Anti-Hero Category:Registered-Real-Name